All I Ask of You
by Genevieve Kelly
Summary: This one-shot takes place at the end of season three's, Lost Girl. After Emma leaves their camp on her own to try to destress after a trying day, Pan appears to her again and continues to taunt her. However, Hook suddenly appears as well to defend Emma against the demon child. While Hook only wishes to assure her she can trust him, Emma is afraid to do so and she pushes him away.


All I Ask of You

One-Shot

On the island of Neverland…

For everyone who had come to the island to save Henry from Pan, it had been a long and trying day. Everyone was tired, worried for the boy, and they were all on edge, especially after the battle they fought against the Lost Boys no more than an hour ago. However, Emma was feeling the stress of it all even more so thanks to Pan's taunts about her feeling like nothing more than an orphan for being so alone her whole life, and finally the realization that he had been right. Because she did feel like an orphan, even now despite having found her parents.

And if that wasn't all bad enough, Hook… despite his kindness in his efforts to help ease her mind as much as he could, happened to say the last thing she ever wanted to hear from anyone ever, least of all from a handsome man which Emma couldn't deny the pirate Captain was. That he wished to get to know who she really is. And it was in that moment she couldn't stand to be around anyone any longer, least of all him. She needed time alone to try to collect her thoughts and to push down the rage threatening to burst out of her if she wasn't careful.

So, Emma left their camp alone to find food for them to eat despite the dangers that were possibly waiting for her out within the jungle. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the biggest danger to them all didn't waste time to show his face once more, as Pan appeared behind Emma while she was kneeling in front of a thicket picking berries.

_"__Don't eat the blue ones," the villain swiftly warned her, as Emma immediately spun her head around to look up at him, then turned away again to continue picking the berries without worrying about getting an arrow to her back or something else, while he simply continued to talk with a smugness about him. "Congratulations. You did it… orphan. You don't mind if I call you a Lost Girl, do you?"_

_ "Call me what you like," the Savior calmly answered him, preferring to choose her battles with him more wisely than she had earlier in the day. "It won't stop me from finding Henry."_

_ Pan chuckled as he walked around her and replied, "Oh, I'm counting on that. There's a reason I tested you."_

_ Despite trying to ignore him, without looking up at him again, she questioned, "Really?"_

_ "You haven't forgiven your parents for abandoning you," the demon child responded to her then more cruelly. "Don't deny it. You haven't. That's good. Really good. 'Cause when you find Henry, you'll understand him."_

_ "What's that supposed to mean?" Emma darkly asked him upon sensing his threat against her son, swiftly rising again to her feet while she finally turned around to face him._

_ Peter Pan glared at her as he answered sinisterly, "He hasn't forgiven you either. By the time you get to him, he'll never want to leave this island."_

_ However, the woman before the boy didn't fall prey to his taunting this time around and instead she simply replied, "We'll see."_

_ "And as for you, Emma… when we're finished, you won't just feel like an orphan," he coldly continued once she bent down to pick up the bowl of berries she picked and started to walk away from him. "You'll be one."_

Emma continued to walk away from him knowing it was the best thing for her to do, until she couldn't just shake off this villain's threat against her parents as the anger towards him within her rose back to the surface. She swiftly spun around again before Pan could disappear on her like he did the first time he came out to taunt her earlier that morning, as he smiled smugly upon seeing the fury on her face showing how much she wanted to attack him. However, before she could react, Hook suddenly appeared behind Pan with his sword drawn from its scabbard, the blade pressed against the true villain's throat. Pan just laughed at his old foe's foolish attempt to come against him to try to protect Emma, while Emma only stared at Hook in shock upon seeing him do so.

"Laugh all you wish, demon," the pirate Captain pronounced darkly to the villain laughing at his gall to come against him. "But I suggest you go back to your merry band of imps to join them in their romping around the campfire. No doubt they're already celebrating what you lot presume to have been a victory. You've taunted the Savior here enough for one day."

Pan continued smiling while he responded to him haughtily, "Still every bit the fool you've always been… aren't you? However, this time it's because you have come to care about some woman, who will never see you as anything more than just a pirate. Not revenge any longer. Is it love?"

When Hook just glared at him without uttering a response, Pan sensed his contempt and laughed once more, then continued, "It's okay… you don't have to answer that. I'm sure you'd deny it anyways. Or you might just be here simply because you've sworn your allegiance to those you think will actually get you what it is you really want. Whatever it is now. But know this… you're all still alive because I've deemed it so. I could have let my friends kill each of you today if I wanted to. But the Savior here, hasn't yet finished learning her lesson I've in store for her. And neither have the others. But you on the other hand, Captain… I've known you long enough to know that you won't ever learn the lessons I've tried to teach you those many years you lived here in Neverland."

The demon swiftly spun around to face the other villain who still held his cutlass out against him and took two steps back, then added smugly, "I suggest you look out more for yourself, Killian. I'm not finished with your new friends yet, but I might just decide to end your miserable suffering by snuffing out your life at any time, so long as you remain on their side."

"You can try," Hook curtly retorted while keeping his eyes solely on the child before him. "For now… get the hell out of here."

And with that said, Pan smirked at the pirate once more, then vanished from before Hook and Emma without so much as another word. After he was gone, Emma straightened herself as she struggled to collect her thoughts, while she astonishingly stared at the pirate she had walked away from earlier out of frustration.

"What was that?" the Savior finally asked him, once Hook lowered his sword and returned it again to its scabbard he wore at his side. "Did you have to go and antagonize Pan even further?"

"A simple thank you would be a little more appreciated, love," he answered quietly in his own frustration upon being yelled at by her again, then turned towards the path back to their own camp, motioned for her to step ahead of him so they could return, and waited by without looking back at her. "You shouldn't walk off on your own. Like I said before to Regina… you don't know this island like I do. Being on your own even to unwind from what's bothering you, isn't safe."

Emma continued staring at him for a few moments longer, until she finally nodded while she genuinely replied, "You're right. I'm sorry. And thank you. But I wasn't really in any danger, was I? You heard Pan."

Hook let out a restrained sigh and finally turned his head to look back at her as she moved closer towards him, then in complete honesty, he responded quietly, "I came after you to try to keep that demon from taunting you anymore tonight. You've had a difficult day. I'm just sorry I didn't find you a few minutes earlier. Whatever Pan must have said to get you to try to attack him..."

"He threatened my parents," she suddenly cut him off before he could finish, not wanting to hear him continue to act as her knight in shining armor. "Not like he threatened all of us earlier, but he warned me that both David and Mary Margaret would be killed by the time we finish here in Neverland. And after everything he's said and done since taking Henry away from me… I lost it. I was about to strike out against Pan, even though it would have been a foolish move. Especially since it's what he wanted me to do. I'm glad you came out here to stop me this time, but I'm not looking for anyone to protect me. Least of all…"

"I can protect myself," Emma then finished after she had paused a moment to stop herself from lashing out against Hook once more in an attempt push him away, not wanting to hurt him anymore than she realized she already had upon seeing his eyes turn downward once again to avoid looking at her any longer.

However, as she did so, she could also see him wince for a second time, like she thought she had seen in his eyes moments earlier when he had put away his sword until she simply shrugged it off as a trick of her mind. A wince that wasn't made because he was battling his emotions, but physical pain.

She moved in even closer to him as she reached out to try to check him over for anything that would cause him any physical discomfort by pulling back his duster and touching his stomach on his lower left side, then worryingly felt a wet sticky substance seeping through his shirt beneath the vest he wore.

She crossly looked up at him as she grumbled, "You're bleeding! Why haven't you said anything? Were you struck by one of their arrows in Pan's attack? You know... the poisoned tipped ones?"

Hook grabbed her wrist to stop her from prodding at him and stepped away from her again while he answered sternly, "I'm fine, love. It's nothing, but a scratch. I simply got struck by one of the Lost Boys' swords when I was fighting him during the battle. Not one of their arrows, I assure you. My hook slipped off his sword's blade for a mere second in a moment of weakness. I'll be alright."

"Not if you don't actually take care of it, you won't be," the Savior replied in frustration and pushed him back towards a fallen log on the ground nearby to urge him to have a seat, then set down the bowl of berries again on the ground when she knelt down in front of him once he obeyed. "Take off your jacket and your vest, then pull up your shirt enough so that I can get a better look at this so called scratch."

"What… no innuendo, or smug comeback from you after a request like that?" she then questioned him in surprise after he failed to say anything smug, while he kept his head downwards as he struggled to remove his jacket and vest like she asked of him to do. "That's not like you."

The Captain glanced into her eyes again for a brief moment, then glanced down at his satchel he wore over his shoulder and finally responded quietly, "You'll find a few bandages here in my satchel. Along with an old remedy that ought to help with the sting a little. But I can tend myself if you'd prefer…"

Before he could finish, Emma quickly answered him, "I would prefer staying right here for a little longer, so long as you quit trying to avoid having me help you."

"Good," she then added once he stopped fidgeting and allowed her to get a better look at the wound, that wasn't as bad as she feared it might be with the amount of blood seeping through his shirt and from the wound, but it was still deep enough that he needed the help with the bandages, especially with him being one handed, and finally she began to work while the pirate remained silent. "So… this morning when I slipped out of our camp the first time Pan found me alone in this jungle and gave me his stupid map… did you notice me leave then too? Because you didn't come after me to try to protect me then?"

"I'm afraid that's because I was lost within my own thoughts trying to drown out the crying like I tried to do every night back when I lived here," Hook somberly replied to her, as he pulled out his flask to take a drink from it to let it help with the pain while Emma prodded him again. "It didn't often help much, but it was the only way I could ever get any bloody sleep. And most nights I couldn't. Thankfully, I learned a long time ago how to keep myself going on little to no sleep at all."

Emma paused in her ministrations for a minute as she looked at him and asked, "You could hear the crying too? My parents didn't. Neither could Regina. Who was it and why were they crying? Does it really happen every night?"

Hook took another sip again and offered his flask to the woman beside him on the ground until she declined the drink, then he spoke again as he responded, "Most nights. When the Lost Boys don't stay up half the night dancing around the campfire like wild animals as they like to do. And they cry… because they feel lost and abandoned, and some simply because they miss their parents. Few people can actually hear them."

"You mean… only those who also feel like they've been abandoned?" the Savior sadly asked him again, upon reading between the lines of what he had told her. "I remember the things you said to me up on that beanstalk while we were climbing up to the giants' castle. That you've seen the look in those kids' eyes. In my eyes. The look you get when you've been left alone. Just like I saw in that one Lost Boy's eyes tonight too. You also said to me that an orphan is an orphan. You're something of an open book at times yourself, Hook. You were abandoned by your parents too… weren't you?"

"So what if I was?" he sternly retorted as he looked up into her eyes at last, and though his eyes were hard, Emma could also see the sadness behind them. "It was a long, long time ago."

When Hook lowered his eyes and turned his head away once more, she urged him to continue as she questioned, "What happened? Do you know why?"

Without raising his head, he reluctantly answered, "From the moment I awoke the very next morning after my father left my brother and me during the night. Our mother died when I was a boy. I can barely even remember her. And most of what I remember I fear comes from the stories my brother used to tell me of her. Some years later, when I was about Henry's age, our father purchased passage for the three of us on a ship. He put me back to bed one night after I had awakened upon being frightened by the raging storm upon the sea, told me everything would be just fine because he would be there to look after us, and then… Well, the next morning he was gone. The Captain of the ship told me right away that our father had sold my brother and me to him in exchange for one of their rickety rowboats, so that he could escape from the law waiting for him at the next port."

"He sold you?" Emma at last uttered again as she stared up at his solemn face in disbelief while Hook continued to keep his gaze turned away from her.

"Aye… he sold us into a life of servitude," the pirate curtly retorted again. "I was forced to live the next sixteen years of my life as a slave under other ruthless pirates no better than myself, until fortune finally came upon my brother and me when a chance for us to become soldiers within the Royal Navy came our way. So yes, Swan… I too was abandoned."

Emma finally finished with her ministrations while she remained silent as she pondered all that this man sitting in front of her had told her of his own tragic past, then once she tied the last of the bandages around his waist that would hopefully keep him bleeding out any further, she looked up at him again and replied somberly, "I'm so sorry. You were right earlier. About you not being who I believed you to be from your stories and the movies I've seen about you."

She then paused a moment as she struggled to get back to her feet until she was standing above him, and while he looked up at her again once she did so, she remorsefully added, "But you are still Captain Hook. You're a pirate and still a villain despite whatever it is you're doing here for us. Which is why you won't ever get to know the real me. So please… stop trying."

"Emma, wait…!" Hook abruptly called out to her in response when he immediately stood up from the log and swiftly grabbed her arm gently as the Savior turned to leave, then he turned her around again to get her to face him once more. "Please…"

"I promise you, Emma…" he continued pleadingly, his eyes having changed from being firm to soft while he looked deep into her own and she into his while he spoke. "I won't betray you, or your family. I said you would have my ship and my services, and I meant it. My services… just as I once promised you when we climbed up that beanstalk together to get the compass. Any allegiance I might have had to Pan, simply so I could bide my time while trying to discover a way to kill Rumplestiltskin and to get off this cursed island, was over long ago. It's like I told you… I may be a pirate, but I believe in good form, which is why I will help you to save your son. And whether I know the real you or not… I believe in you. You are not this Lost Girl like Pan taunted. I told you this painful truth about me, because I hoped you would see it as a show of good faith. All I ask of you… is to trust in me a little in return."

When he didn't say anything else, the Savior could only stare at him with bewilderment in that moment, as she struggled with his words and with what her own mind was telling her about him. That she shouldn't trust him because of who he was. However, as much as her heart wanted to trust in him, especially for Henry's sake and because she was grateful for his kindness and his assurance in her, she couldn't take the risk. At least not for anything more than to accept his allegiance to them while Hook continued to guide them through Neverland's dangerous terrain and helped them fight against Pan and his Lost Boys.

With these last thoughts in mind, Emma simply turned again and walked away from him to return to their camp without another word. Hook just stared after her until she was gone from his sight, then sat back down on the log where the woman he was coming to care about more than he could understand, had tended to his wound despite his protests, and he once again pulled out his flask of rum to take several swallows to try to ease his mind, before he stood again to follow after her.

The End


End file.
